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- When choosing personal care products, remember that simpler is better. This means not only looking for products with fewer chemical ingredients (soap instead of shower gel, or moisturizers without fragrance), but also using fewer products overall.
- Think about how necessary a product is before you use it. For example, bubble bath for your baby or for yourself. Do without if you can.
- Use your nose as a guide: If a product has a chemical-like odor, think twice about using it or where you will apply it.
- Read ingredient labels for ingredients like parabens, but realize that many of the most questionable chemicals (like phthalates) won't be listed; instead, they're contained in the umbrella phrase "fragrance."
- Visit product web sites to get more detail on ingredients. Many of them will offer more disclosure than the label does. If you still want to know more, email the company.
- Visit CosmeticsDataBase.com for an up-to-date cross-reference of more than 22,000 cosmetics and a rating of their chemical ingredients.
- Seek out products from companies that have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics pledge. Visit safecosmetics.org/companies/signers.cfm.
- Get the free CD report from Vassar College on environmental links to breast cancer, including the role of cosmetics and personal care products, at ERBC.Vassar.edu.
SOURCES: Stacy Malkan, co-founder, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics; author, Not Just A Pretty Face. James Bailey, executive vice president of science, Cosmetics, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association. Stephanie Kwisnek, spokeswoman, FDA, Washington, D.C. Janet Gray, PhD, professor and chairman, department of psychology, Vassar College, New York. Julia Smith, MD, director, Lynne Cohen Breast and Ovarian Cancer Prevention Program, NYU Cancer Institute, New York. EPA web site: "What Are Endocrine Disruptors?" Environmental Working Group web site: "Body Burden: The pollution in Newborns."
